TIDAL SHIFT: THE CLIMATE CRISIS

As artists and writers, we look to art and story and lyric to help us understand climate change and to ready ourselves for the impossible years that are approaching. The jet stream is wobbling, the coral reefs are dying, our soil and air and water are contaminated. Island nations are sinking below the waves. We may well be one of the last generations of humans to survive on this planet. This issue looks at some of our fears and some of our hopes.

juan-davila-221687 2.jpg

Vizcaino Valley Road - Molly Sturdevant

"I might have said: it came from down behind the Vizcaino Cliffs. It got quiet again, and I thought of it – there had been a cliff yesterday where now there was none."

AFTEREFFECT - Douglas Nordfors

"This morning,/ I longed for last night, for the imaginary/ field that wasn't a vacant lot, for the field/ that, already white, turned even more."

Surge - Denise O'Leary

"Powerful waves crash along the now-submerged wooden marina. The streets are empty of people and everything is grey. Fishers do not swat at the flies that prey on their fresh catch.

Ear Play: An Aural Drama on Climate Change - Sean Woods

"Audio serves as an excellent storytelling method, because it allows an audience member to use their own imagination as they connect to personal experiences that put themselves in a location or emotional state."

The Rise and Fall - Genevieve DeGuzman

"I step/ outside onto the rippled lake, just as you hold/ out your hands, our palms bright in the touching,/ brighter than any perigee."

maia-habegger-432264-2 3.jpg

Last Testament - Cheyenne Nimes

"The edge of the rest of the world but you can’t see it yet, until there’s nothing left but you, standing around the fire with a dim memory of ice blue aural haze floating up the ocean severally. "

we say water_bw.jpg

We Say Water - Lori Gravley

"No one thinks/ of water that melts beneath duff/ so that you can stand on solid ground,/ feel rolling liquid underneath."

Ten Thousand Waves - WK Lawrence

"Before the continents were divided,/ When we were still one,/ When ten thousand waves crashed upon/ One round shoreline."

Tipping Point - Michaela Barnett

"But for whatever reason, my descent into depression mirrors the cascade that occurs in an ecosystem when a keystone species disappears."

Plastic Bag - Dimitri Reyes

"Stamped toxic/ she will soon reside in oceans invisible/ peering on fish choking on bottle caps/ washing it down with the intravenous/ of nature/ washing it down with the intravenous..."

christopher-campbell-30253 5.jpg

Persephone's Chorus Song, In the Anthropocene: Thirsting So Hard - Megan Grumbling

"She started telling some of us, sober and in all sincerity, that she had found a way to revirginize herself. We doubted it, we knew better."

steve-halama-445886 2.jpg

21 - Almosa Pierla-Jones

"When Zo flung open the door, a gust of arctic wind rushed inside. She ignored it, eyes toward the sky. Her grandmother used to tell stories about the things that lay beyond the clouds."

tim-mossholder-2683 2.jpg

Rising Rivers - Ryan Price

"Rain. Wind. Mudslides. Water moves things that were never meant to move. Roads are washed away. Trees are uprooted from dense clay soil. Mountain trails erode. Water drives sediment down from the mountain, over down cliffs and into rivers."

Daughter's Ocean_bw.jpg

My Daughter's Ocean - Maya Roe

"I settled into my memory, curling my body/ around my toddler ecologist,/ whose first word was 'pine,' whose fingernails are stained with crescents/ of red Sierra soil."

Featured Visual Artists:

Aïsha Baert
Renee Kiffin
Sayani Sarkar
Niki Singleton
SaraShiva Spitzer
Kaylee Warner

Alluvian

The Alluvian is an online journal integrating science, nonfiction narratives, and creative responses to environmental change. We promote sustainable engagement with nature through critical analysis, collaborative discussion, and systems thinking.